Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Education is a product of human culture which always develops. But, sometimes it gets a decrease in its quality. As the result, it will be damaged in line with the development of era. Ideally, Education must be a meaningful thing. Education will be more meaningful if it can educate pragmatically suitable with the human era. Therefore, education must be seen as a process to give the human a lot of abilities to do and to overcome the life’s problems. In Indonesia, national education derived from Indonesian culture. It based on Pancasila and Undang-Undang Dasar 1945. Undang-Undang Dasar 1945 declared that to create nation’s intelligent, the government has to apply a national education system. Eventually, this system has been regulated through Undang- Undang no.20 about national education system. In national education system, there are some education levels. As a part of national education levels, vocational education is an education at intermediate level. This level tries to make a development for the participant’s primary ability. Therefore, it is hoped, they are able to participate in certain places, to adapt in their work environment, to find the work opportunities and to develop themselves in their future. Moreover, in undang-undang sisdiknas pasal 15, it also stated that Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan SMK is vocational education level which prepares 1 the participants to get work in certain places. So, the participants must have a good quality to achieve the determined goal. In education phenomena, one of the government’s concepts to reach the quality achievement is to apply the school status. It will be done step by step applying from pioneering international standard school RSBI to international standard school SBI. The policy of Pioneering International Standard School or Rintisan Sekolah Berstandar Internasional RSBI is based on: 1. Law of national education system no. 20 year 2003, especially on section 50 sub section 3. 2. Government regulation on section 61 and subsection 1. 3. Planning of national education strategy year of 2005-2009. Base on the explanation above, we know that International School Standard SBI and Pioneering International School Standard RSBI are the instructions in national education system. It has an implication that the center government with local government have to carry out less than one school at the elementary and intermediate level to be an International Standard School SBI. By applying the concept, it is hoped that education in Indonesia will have an international competitive power. The characteristics of the Pioneering International Standard School RSBI, as stated on “Panduan Penyelenggara SBI” published by National Education Department 2007 are: 1 Applying curriculum in the unit level of education Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP which is developed from standard of content, graduate competence standard, and basic competence which is enriched by international materials; 2 Using English as a means of communication in teaching learning process in the classroom, especially for subjects like: math and science biology, chemistry and physics and also English; 3 Adapting or adopting a curriculum from modern country; 4 Applying higher graduate standard from graduate competence standard Standar Kompetensi LulusanSKL stated on Educational National Standard Board Badan Standar Nasional PendidikanBNSP; 5 Having qualified teachers based on educational national standard Standar Nasional PendidikanSNP; 6 Fulfilling an infrastructure standard of school based on educational national standard Standard Nasional PendidikanSNP and 7 Having national and international standard of evaluation. All characteristics are the references for the improvement of quality for both RSBI and SBI schools. The improvement process from RSBI to SBI includes all of the school components. They consist of teaching learning process as the primary component and other components support the teaching learning process, they are like the principal, teachers, technician, administration staff and school environment. Teaching learning process becomes the primary component because teaching learning process has an important role in education. It is also the most powerful instrument of education to bring about desired changes for students. In another word, it can be said that teaching learning process is a heart of education. Talking about the characteristics of the Pioneering International Standard School RSBI, we know that English takes an important role in the process of learning in SBI or RSBI School. English will be used as a means of communication both orally and written. Since the role of English as an international language and the dominant language in many fields of activity, such as business and banking, industry and commerce, transportation, tourism, sports, international diplomacy, advertising, pop music and so on, the result is English has become the common language of scientific discourse in a world where relative development of a nation can best be measured in terms of its access to science through English. On the other hand, especially in education sector, the role of English implies that it is very important to be learned as the foreign language. One of reasons studying English is applying its function as a means of communication. In this case, having communication means to comprehend and to express information, idea, feeling, and to develop knowledge, technology, and also culture. The real communicative ability is an ability to adapt in its environment, that is an ability to comprehend and to produce oral or written text. Those kinds of text realized in four language skills, they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Those kinds of skills used to respond or to create a discourse in social life. Therefore, methods to teach English are referred to develop those skills, so the graduates are able to have a good English at certain grades. From the previous discussion, the writer knows that teaching learning process, included English is very important. It is why the writer wants to know the English teaching learning process in SMK Negeri 6 Surakarta. In 2006, National Education Department through decree of Direktur Pembinaan Sekolah menengah Kejuruan no. 2835c.5MN2006, SMK Negeri 6 Surakarta was included into some schools prepared to be international school. The program for carrying out International School Standardized SBI was financed by ADB Asian Development bank. So, SMK Negeri 6 Surakarta was called by SMK Model SBI Invest Indonesian Vocational Education StrengtheningPenguatan pendidikan Kejuruan di Indonesia. From 2006, SMK Negeri 6 Surakarta was financed by ADB to develop and to initiate school to be a school with international standard. Today, SMK Negeri 6 Surakarta has five mastery programs, they are Tourism, Accounting, Office Administration, Marketing and Multi Media. From the explanation above, the researcher becomes interested to make a research related to the English teaching learning process at SMK Negeri 6 Surakarta, especially to know about the teaching learning objectives, the syllabus used by teachers, the teachers and learners role, the material, the class room procedure, the class room activity, the evaluation and the strength and weaknesses.

B. Research Problems